DAY TO REPAIR PUNCTURE.
The first Dunlop tyred machine I rode had a flat rim. The rubber part of
the tyre was cemented to strong canvas, and after the air tube was put
inside the tyre this canvas was cemented to the outside of the rim,
fitting in between the spokes; then the other side overlapped and was
cemented on the top of the first piece of canvas. To repair a puncture
the cement on the canvas had to be softened with a solvent before one
could get to the inner tube. After the puncture had been found and
repaired the whole thing had to be fastened up again. It often took a
day to repair a puncture.
The advent of the pneumatic tyre led to all kinds of similar inventions.
There came various kinds of cushion tyres and tyres with inner tube and
outer cover combined. The latter were called single tube tyres. I bought
a Bayliss and Thomas bicycle with this tyre on, and had 27 punctures in
a day and a half. If there was no water around when one had a puncture
one had to find the puncture by spitting on the tyre where it was
thought the hole was. You might picture the cyclist on a hot say, trying
to make enough spittle to find the puncture!
When Harley, the greatest and most prolific inventor of cycles, brought
out his tricycle with the differential gear, similar to that which is
used in motor cars to-day, he received an order from the late Queen
Victoria to deliver two at Osborn House. Whether she rode one herself I
do not know, but I have a sketch of her doing so, published at that
time.
If cycling has done nothing else than to take the town dwellers into the
pure air of the country it has justified itself. But it is doing a much
greater work, for it is educating seven millions of the inhabitants of
these islands to an appreciation of the beauties of nature and a love of
their country, an education which will continue as long as life lasts. |